The Federal Reserve and the American mind

This is part two of a three-part series on the Fed, inflation and currency wars.

Subscription Required

Thank you for reading the MtDemocrat.com digital edition. In order to continue reading this story please choose one of the following options.

Current Subscribers
If you are a current subscriber and wish to obtain access to MtDemocrat.com, please select the
Subscriber Verification option below. If you already have a login, please select "Login" at the
lower right corner of this box.

Special Introductory Offer
For a short time we will be offering a discount to those who call us in order to obtain access to
MtDemocrat.com and start your print subscription. Our customer support team will be standing by
Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm to assist you.

Call and Save! (530) 344-5000

If you are not a current subscriber and wish not to take advantage of our special introductory
offer, please select the $12 monthly option below to obtain access to MtDemocrat.com and start
your online subscription

Contrary to what is taught in government schools, the real history of America is as much about the struggle between the people and the banks as it is about the dates and places of certain events.

For example, most of the wars America has found itself in have been about economics, not ideology. While we all are taught the Revolutionary War was about freedom, according to Benjamin Franklin, the primary reason was because King George III and the international bankers wouldn’t let the colonists issue their own currency.

Likewise, the war of 1812 was fought because the American government refused to re-charter a central bank. Nathan Mayer Rothschild, a member of Europe’s most powerful banking family, is reported as saying that “the United States would find itself involved in a most disastrous war if the bank’s charter were not renewed.”Several months later, the British declared war on the United States using loans alleged to have come from the Rothschilds.

In 1816 a second central bank was established, but when its charter came up for renewal in 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed it, which resulted in the international bankers trying to assassinate him.

G. Edward Griffin believes the Civil War was fought over economics not slavery. “It was about the economic division between the north and south,” he said, “and slavery was only added as an issue towards the end of the war to give it a high moral sense.”

America’s entry into World War I was also not for the reasons given according to Griffin. “The bankers wanted the U.S. in World War I because the British and French were losing. J.P. Morgan had all these many hundreds of millions in war loans to those countries and if they lost, there was no way the investors would get paid back.”

Another factor was a desire by the Zionists to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. At one point, a member of the Rothschild family approached the British government and promised to bring America into the war on Britain’s side if they were given Palestine, which at the time was in Turkish hands. The agreement between the Zionist leadership and the British is enshrined in the Balfour Declaration which is on display at the British Library.

In the case of the U.S. entry into WWII, Griffin believes the country fought because the State Department, Treasury Department, and the Executive Branch were all dominated by members of the Council on Foreign Relations. “These people wanted the U.S. to play a key role in the creation of an international government,” he said. “And they knew the only way to bring it about was to have the U.S. play the role of a victor in a great war … I think that was the primary motivation, even more so than the economic one.”

The birth of the Fed

The Federal Reserve was actually the third central bank established in America and was legislated into existence in 1913.

Griffin, who has written a book on the history of the Fed, said it’s best understood in terms of concept. “It is a cartel,” he said. “A banking cartel no different from a banana or oil cartel.”

Griffin says the Fed was created in response to demand from the public for banking reform. At the time, there was concern about the concentration of financial power in the hands of a few Wall Street firms and the public wanted Congress to bring the industry under control.

However the banking industry, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to take charge of the banking reform movement rather than try to fight it. So in 191o, a group of bankers met secretly at Jekyll Island, a private resort island. The group included Sen. Nelson Aldrich, A. Piatt Andrew, Frank Vanderlip, Henry P. Davison, Charles D. Norton, Benjamin Strong and Paul Warburg.

They drafted legislation that supposedly controlled the banks but instead protected them and gave them additional power and enhanced profits. “It was a brilliant ploy and it worked,” said Griffin. Later, over 100 amendments were added to further enhance the power of the Fed.

“People thought they were getting a piece of legislation that would allow the government to control the banks,” said Griffin. “But what they got was a piece of legislation that allowed the banks to control the government. And those banks are primarily the New York banks like Bear Stearns, CitiCorp, JP Morgan Chase, and others. To know who they are, just look who shows up to testify before Congress,” he said.

Since its founding, Griffin said the Fed has only grown in power. “It is astride the economy and absolute master of the monetary system and it is regulator of all commercial activity in the U.S. It is the tail that wags the dog.”

Educating the public

Having a monopoly on money issuance is one thing, keeping it is another. Griffin maintains that bankers have been able to keep and expand their monopoly over the economy and the government by taking control of the educational system and the media. The purpose being to “educate” Americans to accept socialism and an all-powerful government to manage society.

He says tax exempt foundations owned by banking families such as the Rockefellers “made a conscious decision at the turn of last century to change textbooks and teaching institutions of America so they would no longer teach the value of individual liberty … but rather teach collectivism. They made the conscious decision to provide funding for universities that would change their curriculum to teach that. The history is very clear and very well documented and it’s shocking. And there’s no doubt in my mind that the reason the American people today are willing to accept socialism … is because they have been educated that way. It’s that simple.”

Changing the system

Griffin believes the Federal Reserve is gradually impoverishing the general population with all its money printing and spending.

“The people at the top, where the fresh money is coming in are government employees, government contractors, those getting government grants, the military — these are the politically favored class. They are making out like gangbusters with all this fresh money coming in. They are getting wealthier and wealthier and wealthier.

“But the … middle class. They’re the ones losing the value of their homes, losing their jobs, having to tear up their credit cards. The middle class has been losing a tremendous amount of their wealth during this process. It’s aggravating the distinction between the haves and have-nots and pushing the middle class into the have-not category.”

Griffin said the only solution is for Americans to recapture control of the system. “They have to replace the people in Congress who have allowed and encourage this to happen. Nothing will change as long Congress is dominated by individuals who are collectivists in their thinking and especially those who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations or are dependent upon those who are members of the CFR through the corporations and institutions they dominate. We have to change leadership because nothing else will work.”